<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Una tantum by SuperEllen</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23150074">Una tantum</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperEllen/pseuds/SuperEllen'>SuperEllen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>COWT10, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Unresolved Romantic Tension, just once</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:53:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,889</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23150074</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperEllen/pseuds/SuperEllen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Will being together just once make the tension between them go away?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bokuto Koutarou/Kuroo Tetsurou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>COWT - Clash Of the Writing Titans/Chronicles Of Words and Trials</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Una tantum</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone! As always, English is not my first language, so I really hope I didn't screw up something. If you see something that totally wrong, please don't hesitate to tell me.</p><p>This was written to fill a prompt that is also the title of the entire story. <i>Una tantum</i> is Latin for "just once".</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Training camp. The last training camp of the year. The last training camp of his last year. His last chance, his last opportunity. There were going to be no more joined training sessions with the other schools of the group for him, no more after-dinner sneaking into the gym to practice some more. No more blocking Bokuto's spikes just for fun.<br/><br/>
In other words, that was his last time. The last evening of his last training camp, and he'd blown it. They were going to get their separate ways the following day, and he'd never even tried to confess his feelings to the one he liked.<br/><br/>
It wasn't even that complicated, actually. He'd had feelings for Bokuto since the first training camp of their first year, but he'd never acted on them. Sure, they'd been pretty close, and sometimes he might have also flirted with Bokuto just for kicks, but he'd never been serious. And the other, of course, had never reciprocated. So there he was, opportunity gone, sitting under a tree in the middle of the night. The temperature was starting to go down at night, and the chilling air was making him wish he'd brought a jacket when leaving the building.<br/><br/>
Everyone else was sleeping, he probably was the only one who was still up. But how could he get to sleep?<br/><br/>
He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't hear someone approach him. He couldn't hear the heavy footsteps of someone who didn't care about being quiet, and he didn't realize that he wasn't alone until the yell of "Kuroooooooooo!" almost made him jump out of his own skin. He raised his head only to see the object of his thoughts jogging towards him.<br/><br/>
"Bokuto, what the hell? You scared the crap out of me!" he protested, trying to make his heart go back to its rightful place inside his chest. Because at the moment it was beating too fast, and way too close to his throat. It wasn't only because Bokuto had caught him by surprise while he was lost in thought, but also because Bokuto was now sitting down beside him, and they were way too close for him to feel comfortable.<br/><br/>
"So, what brings you here at this time of night?" Kuroo asked, trying his best to keep his voice casual. He didn't want the other to understand that he was experiencing some kind of distress. He didn't want to look so weak.<br/><br/>
His question was met with silence. Since Bokuto wasn't answering, Kuroo turned around just enough to look at him, and see what he was doing. To his great surprise, he saw that the captain of Fukurodani was sitting hugging his knees and staring at the ground with a sad expression on his face. Kuroo had never seen him like that before. "Bokuto?" he even tried to call, just to see if the other was reacting in some way.<br/><br/>
Calling his name got the job done. Bokuto slowly raised his head and turned towards Kuroo, until the two boys were able to lock their eyes. "I wanted to see you" Bokuto finally admitted.<br/><br/>
Kuroo blinked a couple of times. Wait, what? But he couldn't get ahead of himself for no reason. The two of them had a special bond, forged in volleyball and stupid jokes. Maybe the reason why Bokuto wanted to see him was related to one of those things? Yet he looked sad. But that, Kuroo told himself, could have been just Bokuto being Bokuto. It never took him much to go from hyper to depressed, and maybe the idea of that being their last day goofing around together was somehow getting to him. Yes, that had to be the reason.<br/><br/>
"I'm here" Kuroo decided to reassure his friend, moving a little to the side in order to bump his right shoulder into Bokuto's left. He was smiling, trying not to get lost in Bokuto's eyes, but it was too difficult to accomplish. "W-what did you want to see me for?" he tried to ask, but it came out more hesitant than he intended to.<br/><br/>
"There's something I noticed. Something between us, I mean. Something that shouldn't be there" Bokuto started. His voice was low, delicate, but it became more and more clear the more words he pronounced. It was almost as if he was gathering up the courage to continue, and the simple act of speaking was helping him accomplish his goal.<br/><br/>
Kuroo swallowed so quickly that he hurt his throat, almost to the point that he needed to cough in order to keep breathing. Bokuto had noticed something between them. Yet Kuroo was certain that he'd been so careful! He'd done his best to hide his feelings, to mask them as friendship and nothing else. He'd always thought that he was doing a pretty good job at that. Had he failed instead? Had Bokuto figured out that Kuroo had feelings for him?<br/><br/>
"Between us?" Kuroo tried to ask, looking for some kind of confirmation of the fact that he was screwed. "You mean..." he trailed off, without even finishing the sentence. Because Bokuto surely knew what he was talking about. He was the one who'd mentioned it, after all. Yes, there was something between them. It was called unrequited shameless pining on Kuroo's part, and it was probably making Bokuto sick. Had he waited the last moment they could spend together in order to tell Kuroo that he found him disgusting?<br/><br/>
After Kuroo spoke, however, Bokuto started blushing, nodding in silence to confirm that yes, he was talking exactly about that. Kuroo took a deep breath, trying to figure out what Bokuto wanted to say just by the look on his face. From what he could see, Bokuto was embarrassed, and the only reason Kuroo could imagine for that was the one he feared the most. Bokuto was probably disgusted by him, and by those feelings he was so sure he'd been able to hide.<br/><br/>
"It's okay, Bo. We don't have to talk about it" Kuroo tried to help his friend out by sparing him the trouble of turning him down. Kuroo knew that there was no chance Bokuto could reciprocate his feelings, and he wanted his friend to know that it was still okay. They could still be friends, even though Kuroo had unrequited feelings for the other.<br/><br/>
After those words, however, Bokuto didn't seem to be relieved at all. On the contrary, it looked like he was more nervous than before. How was that possible? "Maybe..." Bokuto started to say, and Kuroo kept his eyes fixed on him, waiting to hear what he had to say. "Maybe there is a way to make it all disappear" the wing skiper suggested.<br/><br/>
Kuroo was even more perplexed now. What was he implying? Did he want to put an end to their friendship altogether? "Like what?" he tried to ask, hoping that his mind was only playing bad tricks on him, that Bokuto didn't want to stop being his friend just because he had some unwanted feelings.<br/><br/>
"We can get it over with" Bokuto affirmed, looking at the ground. "We do it, just once, and then everything will be over and we can go back to normal."<br/><br/>
Kuroo wanted to cry. Bokuto was so disturbed by his feelings that he was even agreeing to, what? Have sex with him? Just so that they could consider it done and move on, maybe forget about the whole thing? No, that wasn't what Kuroo wanted. If he couldn't have Bokuto for real, then he preferred not to have him for just one night. But at the same time, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Maybe he would have been able to move on, after all. It was worth a try!<br/><br/>
"You mean sex? Like, the two of us fucking?" Kuroo asked, just to be sure that he understood correctly. Because he had to have misunderstood what Bokuto was saying. There was no way Bokuto was really suggesting <i>that</i>.<br/><br/>
"Or maybe just kissing? I don't know, you decide. It will be just this once" Bokuto answered, shrugging, and at that point he turned to face Kuroo. Who, by the way, still wasn't believing what he was hearing.<br/><br/>
"Why? Why do you want to do this?" Kuroo needed to know. He needed that answer before he did anything.<br/><br/>
"Because I need this tension gone, and this is the only way I can think of to get past it" Bokuto answered. "But if you think it's not a good idea, then..." he trailed off, but he was stopped by a quick "No!" pronounced by Kuroo. Maybe he was too eager? Yes, maybe. But Bokuto was suggesting that the two of them kissed, and he really couldn't miss that chance, especially because he was never going to get another one. Sure, it wasn't what he wanted, but it was still something.<br/><br/>
"Ok" Kuroo finally stated.<br/><br/>
The two of them stared awkwardly at each other for a couple of minutes, then Bokuto slowly started to get closer. Kuroo could almost hear his own heart beating, as it was trying to jump out of his chest. He could feel Bokuto's breath getting closer and closer to his face, and then lips were on his. He closed his eyes to savor the moment.<br/><br/>
The kiss was messy and rushed, but it was still the best thing that Kuroo had ever experienced in his entire life, because it was with Bokuto. Was he a complete idiot for thinking that? Yes, maybe he was, but that wasn't the moment to dwell on it. That was the moment to enjoy what he was never going to experience ever again in his life.<br/><br/>
***<br/><br/>
That kiss didn't last long, and after that the two boys went awkwardly their own way to get a night of sleep. They never talked about that kiss again, and starting the following day they both acted like the tension between them had finally gone. The problem was that it wasn't true at all. Kuroo was still feeling nervous, as he still wanted something more. But Bokuto had been clear and he had to accept that. It was just once, and it was never going to happen again.<br/><br/>
What Kuroo ignored was that Bokuto's proposal didn't come from the boy understanding Kuroo's feelings towards him. Bokuto had feelings of his own, and he really hoped that kissing Kuroo, even if it was just once, was going to make them go away. They both thought that the other wasn't interested, so they settled for just one kiss, when they could have had so much more. Because those feelings were indeed reciprocated, and Bokuto was as eager of kissing Kuroo as Kuroo was of kissing him. That was the real reason behind Bokuto's suggestion, the reason the boy thought was pretty clear when he spoke up. Therefore he presumed that Kuroo was the one who didn’t want to have anything to do with his feelings, and that the boy was only kissing him to make him happy, just that once.<br/><br/>
In the end, they went on with their lives, and eventually moved on. Both, however, could never forget about that one time they had together. That single kiss that meant so much for them both.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>